Wow, you overwhelmed me with your responses and so timely too! thanks to all
who replied.

My question was about preserving the Arcview (3.2) layout quality when
converting to jpeg or pdf formats. The most commonly used methods (as you
all replied) is to 1) export the layout as a new.eps file and increase the
resolution to the max via the Options button in the export dialogue window
or 2) Install Adobe Acrobat full program on the same computer as Arcview and
then proceed as if to print. When the print dialog box appears, do not
"print",  instead select Print to File and chose the Acrobat pdf. I do not
have Acrobat yet so I cannot test this myself, but many swear by it. 3) What
seems to work the best in lieu of Acrobat is to first select a postscript
printer driver, which must be installed on  your computer and then just like
in #2  above, Print to File after having selected the ps printer driver. You
can increase the resolution in this dialogue window. I compared this image
to the image  created by method #1.  Method #3 is much smoother and more
features are maintained in tact. A fourth suggestion I received was to use
MapPublisher software who's purpose is to create nice looking maps. Sounds
like this may be the best solution.

thanks for all your great advice! Arlene